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Re: WCAG 2 and browser ZOOM and font units

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Aug 13, 2008 5:00AM

WCAG 2 basically requires testing of the site at upto 200% text size,
without specifying the method, so presumably is based on current
usage.

Currently, whilst there are still significant IE6 users, this has to
include by the text size method. Perhaps when IE6 goes the way of NN4
it might be different.

I say might, because the different browsers use different algorithms
(Opera itself includes 2 versions of zoom), and Firefox users can
still use the text method. Also, a lot of corporates and universities
are likely to stick with IE6 for a while, so it may not be as soon as
you think.

Most of the zoom methods do overcome the fixed font + fixed height
issues, but can also create other problems like horizontal scrolling.

The best methods seem to be moving to a more test-oriented method, and
it might take a while for some best-practices to surface. I think that
bullet-proofed layouts that flex within max/min limits seem to work
quite well across the most situations (which is what we've favoured
thus far). Second to that, fixed width layouts with height
bullet-proofing would be my next choice in layout.

-Alastair